Jay Taft: Little kicking back might be good for Bears

The Chicago Bears crawled through the past month, losing three of their past four games, including two straight in Soldier Field. Perfect time for a bye week. Will it pay off? It can’t hurt.

Jay Taft

The Chicago Bears crawled through the past month, losing three of their past four games, including two straight in Soldier Field.

Perfect time for a bye week.

Will it pay off? It can’t hurt.

“You’ve got to get away from the game a little bit mentally. I think it’s going to be good for the guys,” Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said Wednesday.

He happens to be the one who needs it the most. Cutler has thrown five interceptions and two touchdowns in his past four games.

Making bad look good
The Bears have found ways to make bad defenses look good of late. Buffalo fans are hoping they will do it again Nov. 7 in Toronto.

Washington was rated next-to-last in total defense when it held on for a 17-14 win Sunday in Chicago, and still dropped to dead last.

Seattle is 11th in total defense, but the Seahawks hadn’t cracked the top 15 before beating the Bears 24-23 two weeks ago.

Now the Bears face the 21st-ranked defense in Buffalo, with the 31st-ranked rushing defense, when they return from their bye week.

“Obviously we’ve got some things we need to clean up,” Jay Cutler said. “We’re aware of that, and we’re going to address them this week.”

Bears defense not happy either
The Bears defense is still in the top half of the league numbers-wise, even though some of the players on that side of the ball are unhappy with their play.

Chicago did hold Washington to 308 yards, 2-for-13 on third downs and just 17 points — seven of which came on an interception, and three more directly off a turnover. Still, they aren’t satisfied, especially since they’ve lost the past two games at home to weak NFC teams.

“Their offense put 10 points up on us” defensive lineman Anthony Adams said Monday. “We got to a point where I think it was 14-10 and if they don’t score we win. We put it on us to try to keep them out of the end zone, and they ended up scoring.

“We put that on us.”

D.J. tried to hide the smile
D.J. Moore is going to end up being a household name if he keeps this up.

With that name, that classic hairstyle and a golden smile, he’ll fit the part off the field as well as he has lately on the field.

“No, I can’t have much fun with it right now,” Moore said after Sunday’s three-point loss to Washington, “because we’re losing.”

Moore had a 54-yard interception return for the first touchdown of his career and then had another that was called back because of a Redskins delay-of-game penalty.

He has 16 tackles as well, and is working his way into the mix with a nice blend of speed and aggressiveness.

Jay Taft covers the Chicago Bears for the Rockford Register Star. He can be reached at 815-987-1384 or jtaft@rrstar.com.

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